Fahdon
by Productive faffer
Summary: A doorway will always lead somewhere, sometimes it will lead you somewhere you never expected to go and for some, it will lead you to something you never knew you needed. Rating may change.
1. The man with no face

Fahdon

Chapter one: The man with no face.

Blizzards. If one word was used to describe the northern corners of Skyrim that one word would be the first thing to enter anyone's head, more so for the populace of Winterhold which, in the opinion of the figure riding upon the deep black furred horse, was the snowiest hold in the province, seeing as there were no walls or large buildings to deflect the blistering winds. The man riding the black steed trotted casually into the boundaries of the small village, going unnoticed due to it being mid-night, looking over the less than substantial hold capital; on his right sat the jarl's longhouse, an imposing and large building that served as the home of the hold's governing bodies; to his left was the inn, known as The frozen hearth, a large structure that served as the past time for pretty much everyone in the village after eight, the place where many would go to drown their sorrows and drink away what little coin they had; further into the village sat the other source of business, a general store called Birna's Oddments, a rundown and struggling shop that was barely making enough coin to scrape by; lastly the home of Kraldar sat, a lonely building of simple stonework and thatch roofing that did little to guard the occupant from the foul weather outside. The rest of the buildings were little more than ruins that had been created by the great collapse, an event that pulled most of Winterhold into the sea nearly one-hundred years ago, leaving only the college intact. The approaching rider didn't care much for political schemes and shows of power throughout rival holds but personally he felt Winterhold was a sort of 'limbo hold' as it was weak due to the lack of strategic strengths, no wall, few guards and a pretty poor hold as a whole but at the same time, it was home to the best spell casters in all of Skyrim, giving it a great deal of power over other holds.

The college of Winterhold; the mysteries that surrounded the place were legendary and few did not know of the stories, rumours and intrigue that surrounded the place. As the dark person dismounted his horse and made his way up the gentle slope and under the great arc that represented the beginning of college grounds, he paused to appreciate the magnificent architecture that was the centre of arcane study of Skyrim, it stood alone and proud atop a great chunk of rock, a large, far from intact bridge attaching it to the rest of Winterhold, wells of pure magical essence lighting the way. The college itself was a masterpiece of presence, visual appeal and functionality; the tree wings, the hall of attainment, home of the apprentices, the hall of countenance, home of the more capable wizards and hall of the elements, which served as the lecture hall, practise room and study hall all in one, atop this was the Arcanaeum and atop that the Arch-mage's quarters.

It was to this building the man in armour and mask was headed towards, specifically the hall of the elements, as according to the newly made master wizard Tolfdir, another 'anomaly' had arisen and none of the mages there knew anything about it, so, begrudgingly, the Arch-mage had opted to comply with the old man's request and go down to investigate. As the man strode over the ice covered bridge with an impossible balance, he did a routine and habitual inventory; the armour he wore was of the finest quality, if a bit rough around the edges, consisting of plated dragon bone, complex carvings chiselled into it over a long, painstaking period of around six months. The carvings consisted of patterns of flame going down along the sides of the chest plates and along the abdominal, a dragon's skull hidden in the patterns. On the middle of the chest piece the Akavir symbol for shout rested, all of these carvings were filled with the enchanted ice element known as Stalhrim. The armour also had pieces of the Arch-mages robes incorporated into the design, the poncho and hood draped over the heavy armour, a satchel bag hanging off the right shoulder. The joints and the parts of his body not covered by the dragon plate were protected by the ebony mail of Boethiah, the armour's creator had taken from the artefact. Many straps, clasps, belts and buckles covered the back and waist of the armour, holding phials of potion and poison, throwing knives, small pouches of ingredients, lock picks, scrolls and a fairly new invention, courtesy of the mage making his way to his college, called ash screens, a small sphere like shape containing the ashes of Morrowind and a soul gem shard with an explosion charm placed on it, used to create a diversion or blinding screen. Useful in a tight spot. The boots and gauntlets followed suit of the armour save the Stalhrim patterns, instead simply having the fire and jagged ice carvings bare. The protection the armour offered was powerful and the enchantments that powered it were the only thing that bettered that factor; the gauntlets made the wearers hands faster, stronger and steadier, allowing for more powerful and accurate strikes in most forms of weaponry; the boots were muffled and gave the strength of a mammoth; the armour plates gave a magically enhanced healing factor and be rid of lactic acid build up faster than normal; the Stalhrim granted and empowered an already powerful resistance to frost and ice damage granted by the Nord blood that ran through the wearer's veins making the wearer almost immune to frost damage; the shadow black mail kept the poisoning and shrouding effect; the Arch-mage robes gifted the Nordic mage with their powerful magic bolstering enchantment, which when coupled with the jagged sapphire encrusted gold ring, that gave a much larger pool of magicka and increased its regeneration, making the already powerful mage that much more deadly. His mask, a masterpiece of crafting and enchanting consisting of ebony and dragon bone, created in the fires of the skyforge when lit by dragon fire it held no equal in its power; it granted a resistance to half of all magic thrown at its master, increased their stamina reserves, made their skin harder to attacks and further increased their pool of magicka attributes by half of what they originally were and finally made their voice stronger and soothed the pains that came after using it. It took the form of a mix of all the dragon priest masks that there were; the carved patterns of the average mask's forehead are present; the tusks of Konahrik sat below the eyes; the mouth piece shared by Zahkriisos, Dukaan and Ahzidal covered the wearer's jaws; and the menacing eyes of Miraak would gaze at the one who looked upon the headgear. The distinguishing face protection of the last Dragonborn was known as _Sizaanluft_ or 'lost face' as dubbed by its owner a man who was more than he appeared to be, the _Dovahkiin_, the Arch-mage of the college of Winterhold, harbinger of the Companions, listener of the Dark brotherhood, master of the thieves guild, thane to all of Skyrim, hero of Solstheim, lord of the Volkihar vampire clan and champion hunter of the Dawnguard, the man who's deed are known by all and his face known by none; Remus-The Featureless. Remus had taken extreme lengths to conceal his face from the public eye, be it a hood, sticking to the shadows or, as he had most recently taken to, wearing the masks of dragon priests.

As the Dragonborn strode through the courtyard of the college, giving a moment's glance at the statue of the mage who founded the place, Shalidor, moving quickly on to the hall of the elements once inside the difference was made evident quickly; the chilling winds left the warriors body alone and the warmth of the college replaced it almost as soon as he passed through the boundaries of the great hall. He walked through the open gates into the round hall that was the main feature of the lowest floor of the hall of the elements and stood in the door way.

'_Well, I hadn't expected that_'was the most powerful and esteemed wizard of the college's first reaction. Before him stood most every mage in the college; Tolfdir standing at the back of the small army of minds rubbing his chin in thought, no doubt keeping an eye on everyone and making sure they're all safe; the three apprentices J'zargo, Onmund and Brelyna sat in a neat row, looking up at the anomaly, looking down at their note books and scribbling away; Arniel Gane paced around the object in the centre of the room, apparently having being pulled away from his 'secret work', while he muttered to himself and made his own notes; the other senior mages had gathered in one side, talking to each other, glancing up and going back to their discussions, Remus could pick up the words 'disaster', 'oblivion' and 'gate'. The Dragonborn made his way over to the apprentices, his silence impossible for someone of his size, and looked over their shoulder at their work, none of them noticing him. J'zargo had opted to sketch in his book, his paw strikingly skilled around a picture; he had captured perfectly the image of this oddity, the white, what appeared to be marble looking, curve reaching around three meters high, the archway itself, little more than a roughly chiselled chunk of white rock that seemed to have been cut by an imbecilic that had stumps for hands, the white arc housed a bright yellow portal of some kind, the bright light almost blinding around the edges and a dark shad of orange towards the centre, the very middle having, what appeared to be burnt into the portal opening, a black symbol the Dragonborn did not recognise; it was a circle, an 'S' shape cutting it into two equal portions, the left half had a sun at the top, another circle with eight fire like point coming off of it, the sun like shape was in the fore-ground of fore wavy segments that covered the whole of the left segment. On the right side there was an exaggerated crescent moon at the bottom, the moon had a flowing star like pattern around it, the rest of the segment being blank. Moving on to the dunmer of the trio, Brelyna, who had gone down a more traditional note taking route, the well-honed eye sight granted by the _Dovahsos, _dragon blood, allowing him to see her small handwriting.

_The door, or portal as seems more accurate, is defiantly of another plane. The craftsmanship of the arc is rugged and clumsy but that is not what takes my interest. The door or portal seems to be radiating magicka; much like the eye of Magnus had once done, as described by the master wizard, though in this case even I can feel a regular pulsing of sorts every two and a half minutes. The strange seal on the opening is like nothing I have ever seen before…a sun and moon, the latter of which does not seem to resemble either of our own, I have a theory about what this could mean; balance, harmony maybe coordination. Anything else would not make sense, at least not in our meaning of this sort of image._

Straightening up again and looking over Onmund's notes, which proved to be pretty much the same, he made his way over to the arch and took a good long look over it. Everyone in the room noticed him now and gave small greetings; the senior mages nodded and waved, Gane grunted and muttered something about 'interruptions', the apprentices gave a vocal welcoming's and Tolfdir walked up to him held his hand out to greet him in a hand-shake.

"Arch-mage, it's good to see you" was Tolfdir's welcome as he gripped the younger man's hand.

"I have a name Tolfdir" Remus replied, never being too fond of being called by his titles, his voice was deep and had a metallic tone to it, similar to Miraak's when he wore his mask, though was unmistakably more friendly "but all the same _drem yol lok_" he greeted in return his voice rumbling the room as his Thum'um seeped through the draconic, his voice sounding remarkably similar to Paarthurnax when he spoke the tongue of the _Dovah. _The Dragonborn looked back over the doorway/portal "do we know what this is?"

"None" the old man had a sudden look of defeat on him "we've not a thing on this. It's fascinating but we have no records of anything of its ilk, besides the oblivion portals but, as you can see, it looks nothing like an oblivion portal."

"Not all oblivion portals look the same" Gane comments.

"True but I have the feeling that this is not a gateway to oblivion, for one daedra aren't coming through" the Dragonborn argues, before he looks around looking for something "Miraak?"

"Upstairs with Urag, looking though the college archives for answers about…whatever this is" Tolfdir replies before giving a lengthy sigh "I doubt they'll find anything though" he admits. Without another word the last Dragonborn goes to seek the first, heading for the college's library, in a state of calm that told everyone in the room he didn't care much for this new 'discovery'. It was true that he'd taken the title, though he preferred to call it being handed over to him because no one else would want it, as after the rather _noticeable _disaster that was the eye of Magnus incident, an undeniable shitstorm was on the horizon and putting the Dragonborn in charge of the college was the Psijic monk's way of keeping things calm. It had worked but at the price of Remus having to do stuff like this. After taking the stares two at a time and pushing silently through the door to the Arcanaeum, he was met by a most amusing sight; pandemonium would be the best word to describe it, books were flung by a hand hidden by one of the curving walls in a violent and frustrated fashion, while others floated gently towards the direction they were being thrown from, most likely the result of a telekinesis spell, all the while the show being watched by an amused Urag gro-shub, occasionally shouting out a 'be careful' or 'watch what you're doing', although it was unlikely that he would interfere considering that the one throwing his books around had numerous dragons at his beck and call.

"_Unslaad krosis_" Miraak spits in frustration as he goes through yet another book with nothing useful in it "_Sindungahvon_" useless "a portal none have seen before, a library _nil se Onikaan_" void of knowledge. The ancient Dragonborn suddenly noticed the new presence in the room "_wo til?" _Who's there?

"_Fahdon Zeymah_" a friend, brother "Miraak, I thought you would have had enough of book after your time with Mora" Remus comments as he strides over. The first grunts as he clasps fore-arms with his self-proclaimed brother.

"Maybe, but this _miiraak_, this portal has picked my interest." The Arch-mage shakes his head, amused, before looking through some of the books the green robe clad nord had gone through. Putting them back on the shelves he looks back a Miraak as he tosses another book over his left shoulder, still annoyed at the lack of information on the anomaly down stairs. As Remus half-heartedly skims through the tomes he reminisces about his time in Skyrim with his newly discovered brother. After the events of the black books on Solstheim and facing the first Dragonborn at the summit of Apocrypha, Remus had absorbed Miraak's soul. Unbeknownst to him, or even Hermaeus Mora at the time, Miraak's soul was more…potent than the average dragon soul, thus it manifested over a course of three weeks, each day more torturous than the last, as a completely separate being gained power within the Dragonborn's very being, when finally on the twenty-second day, Remus woke up to find that the pain had gone…and Miraak was lying on the ground besides him. As it turned out Miraak had been about to take over Remus's body but Akatosh himself, it seems, intervened binding the two, having them guide and teach each other until their count of days were up. He never did offer an explanation. Thanks to the dragon god of time's influence however, Skyrim, and indeed all of Tamriel, had two Dragonborn to protect the land. It also meant that Remus could better get to know the first of his kind and surprised was the only real word for his reaction; the loss against him in their dual had sent Miraak into a sort of…depression but then, knowing you now had to spend the rest of your life with the one who had killed you would have that effect on you, his rather sever hit to the pride turned the once powerful and fiercely independent dragon priest of allegiance and guidance, into nothing more than an awkward battlemage that did as he was told and followed Remus around like a pet dog…or dragon, only really coming out of his shell when he fought, that being the only thing he did in his state of post-traumatic stress, the thing that did snap him out of his month long trance was what really caught Remus's notice though; it was during an errand that Remus was running for Delvin, something about a shop owner fencing goods in Windhelm and not cutting the guild in, where they came across a girl called Sofie, an orphan who made a living selling flowers, who Remus had come across once or twice in his visits to the hold capital, speaking with her and donating coin but when he crossed her path with the mentally and emotionally inept Miraak in tow…

* * *

"_Hi there" the girl who may as well have been the Nordic embodiment of innocence says to tall, intimidating form of the dragon priest Miraak. Said _Dovahkiin_ looks down at the small freezing child._

"_Hello" he replies, dumbly. Remus looks on with a bemused expression on his face._

"_You wanna buy some flowers?" The last Dragonborn was grateful for the face concealing mask he wore as he struggled to hold down the laugh threatening to escape. His whole mood changes, however, when Miraak gets down to one knee and looks at the girl properly at eye level._

"_Why are you out here girl, where is your _monah, _mother and your _bormah, _your farther."_

"_My mother died when I was little" she explains, apparently un-phased by the use of draconic, "and my papa was a soldier in the stormcloak army. One day he left and never came back" she tells the masked man, tears welling up towards the end of her tail. What happened next would always stay in Remus's memory; Miraak stayed silent for a good, long fifteen seconds, which may as well have been the rest of the fourth era for how long it felt, he puts his right hand on the girls arm in a comforting fashion then, faster than anyone could react, he pulls the girl, who seems just as shocked as the master thieves guild, into a one handed hug._

"_I know your pain _kiir, _child. I too grew up without parents." The last statement causes the Dragonborn to blink, he hadn't been on the best of grounds with his parents when he had left them for Skyrim, they had wanted him to join the imperial legion and fight off the, as his empire backing parents had called them, 'traitorous bastards'. He'd always wondered what they'd have thought when they found out he was Ulfric's most formidable general. Personal history aside, it had never occurred to Remus what Miraak's past might have been like, nor had ever crossed his mind that although the man was fiercely independent, to a degree that Remus had assumed he had no sexual orientation, he might of liked some company now and then. Though if the last thing he said would stay in his memory, the next thing was the equivalent of being branded, with all the skill and subtlety of a drunken giant._

"_It is hard, living alone at a young age" he paused as though he was considering something "you need not do so any more _goraan gein, _young one…"_

"_Wh-what do you mean" the girl asks, eyes wide._

"_What I mean is" he paused, steeled himself "if you so desire I would" another pause, a long steadying breath "take…you in." The answer was given in the form of the girl returning Miraak's embrace, full force, and all the last Dragonborn could do was smile at the scene before him, thanking the divines that someone had gotten through to his brother._

* * *

Remus was pulled from his thoughts by a loud, ground rumbling 'DANM' from Miraak's direction, no doubt marking the end of their fruitless search.

"We're taking this investigation back to the arch" Miraak declares.

"I'm surprised you're involved in this at all, I thought you'd want to stay with Sofie." Miraak reaches up and moves his hands behind his face, pulling down the hood and removing the mask he kept there and ran a hand over his face, still trying to calm his, rather vile, temper.

"I wanted to but Teldryn, Serana and even Silas insisted I get out more." Remus grunted in response. Now lacking his mask, Miraak's seldom seen face was revealed; he had a sharp jaw line with a black stubble running across the jawline, he had a small nose that always reminded Remus of a dragon with a small bump on his face, his eyes were pitch black and had an 'all seeing' quality about them, the grey hair on his head was thick, long, unruly and wrapped in a simple ponytail, reaching down to his upper back. The first Dragonborn looked over to the last "must you always look like you're about to invade Cyrodiil single handily brother?" Remus took a look over himself and laughed.

"Perhaps, but then why have weapons if you don't use or carry them?" The Dragonborn was, admittedly, ridiculously well-armed, asides from the assortment of throwing knives, poisons and ash screens, he had an unusually large arsenal on his person; on his right hip two katanas, made of a dragon's bone, imbedded with Stalhrim, the hilt crafted from ebony and wrapped in black leather, made to match the armour Remus wore, they had no real enchantment, instead allowing the wilder to channel spells through the blade, which for the Arch-mage of Winterhold was a powerful enchantment indeed. Resting on top of the crossed dual scabbards sat a leather sash in which Windshear, the scimitar of the winds, rested. On his lower back the Dawnbreaker and the Nightingale short blades sat, hilts either side of his waist. A dwarven crossbow, the bow compacted against the stock lay above the two short swords, a quiver of twenty bolts atop the scabbards. Auriel's bow was placed on his back the string over his chest and the golden limbs of the weapon over a quiver of sun-hallowed arrows. On top of the god's weapon sat the two-handed katana of Mephala, the ebony blade, the weapon of a daedra. The left hip of Remus's armour was home to a daedric axe, the blade small and the weapon light and fast, a tomahawk, the weapon of certain tribes of Hammerfell, the blade of woe and three daggers of ebony metal. Atop the ebony blade three staves sat; the Wabbajack, the staff of Magnus and the stave of the Dragonborn, a staff that looked identical to a dragon priest's staff only forged from black ebony wood of trees of the Deadlands, capable of channelling any spell its wielder could cast, bypassing the need to use the mage's reserves of magicka. In his left boot Mehrune's Razor was sheathed.

"Ah, Dragonborn welcome back" Tolfdir calls over.

"Tolfdir" Remus and Miraak say at once.

"You've both arrived just in time."

"For what" the last asks. As the words leave his mouth a pulse seeps through his body, a pressure over his entire body, concentrated on his face and right finger.

'_Must be the pulse of magicka Brelyna noticed, concentrated on the magicka enchants' _Remus mentally noted.

"Do you have any idea where this _miiraak_ leads" Miraak requests.

"Well, I didn't think it safe nor wise to just walk in ther- wait, Arch-mage, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Remus walks straight over to the arc, pausing in front of it, before passing straight through.

* * *

What met the Dragonborn was a completely white and featureless area, the glow as pure as virgin snow keeping an odd quality of blinding light but also being bearable to the _Dovahkiin's _eyes. He heard steps in front of him, though not human steps; they sounded like…_hoof steps_? The Arch-mage's left and right hands dart for weapons, both clutching one of the dragon bone katanas, the left weapon's blade held below his fist, the right above the fist.

"Who goes there" he demands of the void. His reply comes in the form of a black out-line, a silhouette in the shape of…_a horse? _That said, certain aspects look off; for one, this equine had what appeared to be a horn on its head, the animal was tall and had a body shape that looked like it had been pampered most of its life, the mane and tail seemed to flow in a wind that ether didn't exist or Remus couldn't feel it.

"I could ask you the same thing" the horse replies.

'_Wait what? Yeah, of course the horse speaks.'_

"Where am I?" The horse, or whatever it is, looks around itself before answering.

"In a space between the worlds we both reside in." Remus's left eye goes half-lidded.

"What" he asks, unbelieving of this equine's words. The horse seems to gain an annoyed quality.

"You are in a space you should not be occupying, biped" the horse, who seems to have a woman's voice, tells him sternly. The Dragonborn takes no notice of her threats.

"And who are you?" She stands a little straighter.

"I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria" Remus almost laughs "who and what are you?"

"My name is Remus The-Featureless, the Dragonborn" he gets no visual or audial reaction, likely because she doesn't know what one is "body of a mortal, soul of a dragon?"

"I get it" the princess loses her 'regal' tone "I suggest you leave this place, before it becomes impossible." Remus narrows his eyes, if only because he knows she's right. Loitering for a second he turns and leaves without another word, sheathing his weapons as he goes back through the portal, questions in mind but with no desire to answer them, especially if it meant being stuck here.

* * *

Immerging through the portal once again, Miraak and Tolfdir go straight up to him barraging him with questions.

"Are you alright?"

"What was over there?"

"Do you remember us?"

"Do you remember yourself?"

"I'm fine, a white room and a horse, you're the first Dragonborn, you're the master wizard of the college of Winterhold, I'm the Dragonborn of the forth era. Stop asking me questions, the pair of you."

"Just one more _Zeymah_, what's that?" Miraak leans to the side slightly, pointing his finger at a point behind Remus. The motion catches his attention and he follows his gesture, turning and looking behind him. His eyes widen at what he sees. Golden, sky blue, dark orange and red swirls leaking from his feet and body, a sight he'd seen around fifty times throughout his life, a sight that he had grown all too familiar with. It was a soul being ripped from its person. His soul. The Dragonborn doubled over, remembering what Miraak had once asked him.

"_Do you think it hurts? Having your soul ripped out like that."_

Yes it hurts, by the god's dose it hurt, like being burned alive, frozen to death, ripped apart by a hurricane, beaten to death by a giant and the whole experience being stretched over three days all at once. Now he was experiencing it for himself he could only feel pity for all the dragons he had slain. The pain he felt suddenly intensified, a roar of pain ripping from his throat as his flesh and muscles were burnt from his skeleton, flaking away in a golden light as he felt his being get pulled into the void he had just been in.

"Brother, BROTHER, REMUS" Miraak bellow as he watches his brother get taken away from him by an unknown force. The last drops to his knees as his leg muscles disintegrate; he manages to raise his head and look Miraak in the eye through both their masks.

"_Ahkrin Miraak_" courage Miraak, were the Dragonborn's final words before he passed from Nirn.

* * *

All's Miraak could do, was stare. He could not comprehend what he just seen, one second his brother had been making comments as though everything was normal, the next…

"W-what happened" Tolfdir whispered to no one in particular, most likely because no one would know the answer. Miraak took a step forwards, then another and another, until he was next to the still figure of his brother.

'_He's not dead, he can't be, no he was just…knocked out by something, yeah that's it, no problem.'_

He reached down and pulled his hood back revealing the brown tight leather straps, similar to the mask clasps of his old cultist's masks, slowly and tenderly he released the buckles one by one until he had loosened it enough to remove the mask. Once he took it away from his face he let out a horrified groan, falling onto his back-side in complete misery, holding his own face in his left hand and keeping his grip on _Sizaanluft_ tight in his right hand. Tolfdir moved towards the two _Dovahkiin _with fearful movements, he spotted the ivory white bone where flesh and hair should have been, the old wizard put a sympathetic hand on Miraak's shoulder, he shrugged it off and turned his gaze to the old man. Tolfdir couldn't see the masked man's face but he knew that he was wearing a gaze that a dragon would cower under.

"Fetch his family" he ordered. Tolfdir nodded and jogged out. As he sat there he struggled to get a hold on his thoughts; a part of him was ripping apart the whole of Tamriel in his rage, another part of Miraak was asking himself why he was not taking advantage of this situation, stealing his armour and weapons, taking the influence and power across the whole of Skyrim and beyond that the dragon in him felt was rightfully his but it was the simple fact that now he was gone, it was only now Miraak could see how much he meant to him, he'd defeated him but treated him like an equal, shown him the ways of the modern world. He'd been his brother. Miraak stood up, barring the way between his brother and any who would do his corpse harm, snapping his right arm to the side, tendrils grew from beneath his robe's sleeves, forming a deep green blade.

"No one will approach until Serana, Teldryn and Silas have paid their respects." The mages and apprentices gulped and nodded, not wanting to get on the Dragonborn's bad side when he was in a bad mood.

Three hours past.

Tolfdir returned with four people in tow; the first was the dashing daughter of Coldharbour, the female vampire by the name of Serana; the second was a dark elf, clad in chitin armour, save the helmet that was pulled off of his head as he entered the room and tossed carelessly to the side in panic; the third and fourth came at once, one of them was a giant, clad in ebony armour, a sword of the same make on his belt. He went by the name Ebony warrior, though his birth name was Silas blackblade, a warrior on equal standing as Remus. The forth one to enter the hall of the elements ran straight up to Miraak, she grabbed his leg and buried her face into it as she wept, as Miraak, her adoptive father, placed his gloved hand on her head as he watched Serana, Remus's lover, hold his remains and cry to herself. Silas approaches Miraak.

"I always thought it would be one of us to fall first."

"He hasn't fallen."

"What do you mean 'hasn't fallen' Miraak?"

"In my gut, I just don't think he's dead, I can't explain it."

"I admit it; it does seem unlikely that he would fall off of the battlefield."

"But, uncle Remus isn't moving and aunt Serana…" Sofie observes poking a hole in their unrealistic hopes. Miraak looks down at the girl he had come to adore, reaches down and picks her up. The three of them watch as Serana cries her eyes out over the skeleton of her dead lover, Teldryn had retired to sitting against one of the pillars, holding his grey features in his hands. For a good two hours the only sounds were of Serana's grief given sound. Miraak couldn't shake the feeling though, the unexplainable feeling that was a person's gut feeling, the feeling that Remus hadn't died, but simply moved on to a better place.


	2. The traveller

Chapter two: The traveller

Celestia looked on in horror at the scene before her, which had started moments after she had left her side of the stone cutter's passage; an ancient and powerful artefact that lived amongst hundreds, if not thousands, of other ancient and powerful artefacts in the bowels of the Canterlot palace. The stone cutter's passage was not, by any means, the most dangerous of the artefacts down here, far from it, but it was one of the more…unpredictable of them; it was made by an amateur marble sculptor and appeared to be rough and amateurish to the untrained eye…mainly because it was rough and amateurish, the first and last piece of work by a unicorn named Marbles. Marbles made this 'arc' as a starting project, something to work up from, a sensible notion in the eyes of many, but as fate had it he fell ill shortly after he finished it. Not wanting his life's work to go forgotten he had a curse placed on it by a less honourable unicorn in his bitterness, a curse that turned his humble arc into a doorway, a portal if you will, that could appear anywhere and that rule was binding; the mind of Discord, or the vacuum of space, this doorway way an invitation to disaster, as any number of things could go wrong with a portal such as this. What was happening before the ruler of Equestria was just the reason for this paranoia.

A skeleton appeared before the princess of the day; it was formed from, what can only be described as, pure magical energy; gold, blue, reds and orange streaks of pure energy swirled with the distant sound of winds accompanying it in its arrival, as the swirls began to form ribs, a spine, four limbs and a skull. Next, like burnt parchment moving backwards in time, skin tissue and muscle started to grow on the skeleton; the body was toned and muscular, strong like an earth pony but also light and nimble like a Pegasus, with the distinct presence of magical power. Celestia frowned; this was like no other power she had felt before. With this realisation, the Alicorn backed up, arching her back in a stance that told anypony, or whatever else may be coming through this portal, that she was ready to fight. Now the body's details were starting to take shape, hair appeared on its head and body, the whole length of it becoming covered in its warming layers. After another few minutes of this, rather grotesque act of something being re-birthed, Celestia could make out more details; it was lying on its back, had a very strong physic and was a little rough around the edges. The dictionary's representation of 'regal' took a look between its hind limbs and blushed. He was male, VERY male. It suddenly struck her that this being was not moving and was taking very shallow and strained breaths, Celestia's eyes widened, he may need help, could be dying and here she was checking him out. She focused her magic on the limp body, a golden glow surrounding the body, and he was levitated onto Celestia's back, she strained and grunted under his weight; he was heavier than he looked. Celestia was an Alicorn and had all physical and magical attributes of all three races, the strength of an earth pony being the one that was least regularly used but it didn't change the fact that she was stronger than the average pony but this one, he was on an altogether different type of heavy. Another golden glow emitted, this one enveloping the one casting it and the one on her back, a flash of light illuminating the room on the lowest level of the Canterlot palace, and Celestia and her passenger were gone.

Not a second later Celestia was in one the spare rooms of Canterlot castle, admittedly even one of the nobles of the capital would kill for one of these rooms but they paled in comparison to hers and Luna's so technically they counted as spare so that was what they were called. Celestia placed the ragged body onto the lush bed in the middle of the room. She straightened up and looked over the one resting on the mattress; she couldn't help but think he was a little handsome, even like this. He also struck her as somewhat familiar; she didn't know how he just… did somehow. The princess of the sun turned and took her leave, leaving whoever he was by himself. Trotting down the hall she began to wonder just who he was and how he had come to…arrive in Equestria, for there was no doubt about that; he was definitely of another world, if his unorthodox means of arrival was anything to go by, she felt the need to find out more about him but she had day court to attend and other royal duties to perform and Luna was asleep, resting for night court. An idea popped into her mind and her face lit up.

'_Twilight.'_

The smile on her face would be recognised by any of the staff of the castle; maid, guard or adviser would know the small and motherly smile that marked that the princess had thought of an excuse to see her prize student, without cause for alarm. She trotted merrily to her private chambers, a spring in her step as she went, passing stallion and mare alike, all of them recognising the smile on her face, each giving a small smile of their own at the prospect of seeing young Twilight again. She stepped into her room and sat at the undeniably royal desk, a piece of parchment ready to be wrote upon, and sat down with a phoenix feather quill in magical grip, ready to wright.

_Dear Twilight Sparkle_

_I require your assistance in a most unusual of circumstances. A body appeared in the storage levels of Canterlot palace; though I know how he appeared, I do not know why, where he is from or even who he is. I need your assistance in finding the answer to these questions, be it through study or asking him when he awakes._

_Hope to see you soon._

_Princess Celestia._

The princess straightened up and looked over the letter, watching as it rolled up in her magical influence, before sending it on its way with a spell she had learned only so she could stay in touch with her student. Celestia watched the golden mist flow out of her window on its way to Ponyville, her student's new home, and eagerly awaited the reply.

* * *

Twilight, as per the usual, was reading. This time she had delved into some of the older books of the library tomes of old magic that she could only begin to comprehend, a bunch of old books on the ancient history of Equestria and the one in particular that she was reading now, one that had caught her eye rather easily and one that even Spike also showed some interest in; it was a short book on the ponies limited knowledge on the dragons, barely twenty-five pages long and most of it what she already knew. What she didn't know however fascinated her greatly, the last five or six page told of the few ponies who would fight them, slay them and defend the land form them. She knew that during the war against Discord, many of them had sided with him; Celestia herself had gone up against more than one single-hoofed and defeated more than that alongside her sister and guards. She devoured each and every word, the book telling of a few powerful individuals that slayed dragons for a living, pretty much all of them perishing at the hands of the so-called 'dragon king' the most powerful of all dragons. When she read this she couldn't help but doubt the stories; she had met the equivalent of teenage dragons and she had almost been turned into a snack, so she could not comprehend how anypony, powerful or not, could take down a fully grown dragon by themselves. By the third time she had read the book she had waved it off as simple old-mare tails, stories and nothing more.

"Hey Twilight, you done with that thing yet" her assistant, Spike the dragon, the equivalent of a toddler dragon, asked from her side. She looked over at him and smiled slightly, she had been reading the book for nearly three hours non-stop, starting at eight in the morning, and the child dragon was beginning to worry about her.

"Yeah, guess I got a little carried away, I just find these stories a little unbelievable" she admitted. The dragoon nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, I don't think a lone pony could take on a fully sized-BUUURP!" He was cut off by a green flash of fire and the parchment that followed it. Twilight seized it with her purple aura as soon as it materialised and began to read it. Spike watched her reaction as it turned from glee, to confusion and finally to excitement as she read. "What is it" Spike asked, unsure whether to be worried or not.

"It's a note from Celestia." Spike's face went flat.

"Duuh." Twilight shot him an annoyed look.

"It's a note from Celestia saying that I should go to Canterlot, she says she needs help with some kind of research project." Her face lit up as she said the last two words. Spike hit his face with the palm of his hand.

"Oh brother…" he said at length as he ran his palm down his face.

"Spike, do you think you could watch over the library while I'm gone?" Spike nodded nonchalantly.

"Sure…wait, what. I'm not coming with you?" Twilight smiled sweetly, causing Spike to reluctantly agree with her.

"It'll be fine Spike, I'll be a few days nothing too bad. Nothing my number one assistant can't handle." Spike blushed slightly as his adopted mother/sister ran her hoof through the spikes atop his head.

The two then spent an hour packing Twilight's saddlebags and making sure she was ready for the journey, once she was set with all necessary supplies she made her way to the train station, luckily a train had just arrived and she hopped right on it. The journey was long and not particularly engaging; she occupied her mind with thinking about what she would say to Celestia when she got to the palace. It would be nice to be able to speak with her teacher when the fate of Equestria was not in the balance, she noticed that she had not spent all that much time with those she had spent it with in her foalhood; Celestia, Cadence and Shining Armour, she had seen none of them as much as she would like to in recent years. She looked over the book on dragons she had taken from the library again as she rode the train, lost in thought she did not notice the time pass and she soon found herself in Canterlot train station. Hopping off the train and trotting up to the castle she took in all the sights and sounds of the big city; she had to admit it though, after so long in Ponyville she had gotten used to the quietness of the small town and though the Canterlot streets didn't exactly overwhelm her, she found herself wanting the peace and quiet of Ponyville.

She passed a few familiar faces on the way to the castle, some nodded, others smiled and one or two said things like 'welcome back to the city' and 'hello again'. The trot through the streets was, decidedly, uneventful besides the occasional greetings sent her way, soon enough she found herself at the gates of the palace, two royal guards standing to attention either side of the majestic entrance.

"Afternoon boys" she called over. The guards spotted her, smiled and nodded her way, opening the gates to permit her entry. Keeping her pace, she trotted through the palace doorway and into the grand hallway that served as the entrance hall. She saw Celestia almost as soon as she entered, the princess of the day was moving from one room to another with what could only be described as a look of confusion on her face. She turned her head; Twilight could only guess she was trying to get her bearings within the palace when she spotted her, Celestia's face brightening up as soon as she saw her student.

"Twilight" she exclaimed as she saw her student, galloping over to her, in a not too regal manner, and scooping her up into a hug, again in a not too regal manner, but she would be damned if she cared. "It's good to see you again my…most faithful student." Not many in the room clocked the pause in the princess's sentence, even if they had who would say anything anyway she was the princess, but unbeknownst to everypony in the room Celestia had almost said 'daughter'.

"It's good to see you to princess" Twilight told her truthfully, she hadn't noticed just how much she had missed her mentor but it certainly shone through now as she hugged Celestia back in earnest. The two released each other and proceeded to walk down a corridor that Twilight could have sworn the princess had chosen at random.

"I trust you know why you are here" Celestia asked in her motherly voice. Twilight looked up at her and more or less shrugged.

"Well you said that you needed help finding out who somepony is and that you needed me to research where he might be from, just point me in the right direction and I'll get right on it" she said dutifully, causing Celestia to swell with pride.

"Well rather than show the way, why don't I take you there?" Celestia then proceeded to teleport the two of them outside, the 'newcomer's', as Celestia had taken to calling him, room. "He's in there but I don't think he'll be awake just yet." Twilight nodded but raised an eyebrow at her mentor. "He had a very…unorthodox method of arrival and I think it took its toll on him" she elaborated. Twilight nodded again, she moved towards the doorway and opened it with her magic, taking a look at her 'subject'. She was taken aback to say the least; he was like no other pony she had seen before.

He lay atop the sheets giving her a good view of him; he had an unkempt and windswept mane, reaching down to his back. It seemed to have been washed about as many times as it had been combed keeping a greasy sheen that likely would have caused Rarity to feint, the mane was a deep raven black, the only attempt at order being a braid running down the left side of his face. The braid also kept the mane away from his horn that protruded from his fore-head. Twilight raised an eye brow; she had only just noticed the large body that the unicorn had, he was muscular in the ways of one of the royal guards but had a certain element of nimbleness to him, something that reminded her of Rainbowdash, it struck Twilight that this stallion had the physical attributes of an Alicorn, just without the wings. His coat was another oddity; it was pure, bright white, the colour reminded her of virgin snow. The white fur reminded her of Celestia's coat, just without the well-kept quality that the princess's always had, also, Celestia did not have the ice blue patterns on her fur; she recognised some of the more flowing lines as simple patterns of fire and the jagged lines as ice. The stallion stirred and turned over on the bed, Twilight caught sight of what had caused Celestia to blush earlier. Turning quickly back to her mentor, eyes wide, she closed the door and looked up at her.

"Well… he's certainly different" she commented. Celestia nodded he agreement, a small smile on her face as she saw her students redness.

"I've never seen those marks on his fur before; they could be nothing or they could be important. That and his means of arrival certainly strikes me as odd."

"Just how did he arrive?" Celestia looked at the door to the newcomer's room, contemplating whether or not to tell her. Taking another look at her pupil's curious eyes, she felt her resolve crumble and told all; giving great detail about the way he had appeared in the room that served as the vault of potentially dangerous relics. Once she was finished Twilight's eyebrows had shot into her mane line.

"Wow…that certainly is…unorthodox" she said at length.

"Indeed, but I think that would be a good place to start in your research." Twilight nodded but hung her head; Celestia figured it was in disappointment that she wouldn't be able to spend any time with her. The princess of the sun felt the same way. "Tell you what" she said a little mischievously "when you're done, what do you say we spend a bit of time together." Twilight beamed in response.

"I'd love that" she responded. The two parted ways soon after; Celestia for the day court and twilight for the library, though only one of them was going to get anything from it. For nearly six hours Twilight poured through books, everything from the markings on his body that had her curious to the peculiar way in which he had arrived, the only bit of useful information she got from her reading being that the portal was not restricted to dimensions so it was entirely plausible that he was from another universe, though she doubted it considering that he was a pony. All theories aside, the purple mare was beginning to get frustrated with the lack of information in the library, and had taken to slamming her head into the book to try and relive some of the stress. From her left somepony giggled, she looked up and saw Celestia standing with Luna.

"Celestia, Luna" she called, overjoyed that she would be able to see Celestia's little sister again. She trotted over to the princess's and smiled at them.

"How did the research go my student" Celestia asked with a small grim on her face at how she had found her student. The question caused Twilight to drop her smile.

"A disaster, there's nothing here whatsoever; nothing on the way you told me he arrived, nothing on his patterns and there was very little on the stone cutter's passage and even less on the possibility of it bringing somepony over. I did find something on it appearing in different dimensions but I doubt that's the case, considering that he's a pony." Celestia listened to the report, somewhat disgruntled with the turnout of information but she had to admit, she'd more or less seen it coming.

"I see, but enough of that, we will get our answers when he awakes but for now, we have some catching up to do" she smiled down at Twilight, who smiled back in return. The only one who wasn't happy about the prospect of a sleepover was Luna, silently cursing her duties in night court. Celestia noticed her sister's expression; she felt for her, knowing that not many ponies saw her as a pony, rather just a ruler and had been getting lonely as of late. "Luna, why don't you take the night off, I'm fairly sure that I took care of pretty much everything this morning, what with all the ponies that came today and besides" she looked over at Twilight "it's such a rare occasion that Twilight comes to Canterlot and it would be a shame for you to miss it." It was all Luna could do to stop herself from lunging at her sister and wrapping her in a bone crushing hug, all in all she failed anyway, as she found herself embracing her big sister in a not-quite-bone-crushing-but-airflow-stopping hug. "You're welcome sister" Celestia choked out.

In Celestia's private quarters, after Luna had raised the moon and declared that night court was cancelled due to the arrival of somepony important, they sat on Celestia's bed and talked into the night. Unbeknownst to them, a certain stallion was stirring in his bed.

Remus's eyes fluttered open, he immediately felt the change; he knew he was shorter, he held himself on the bed differently and he could feel something brushing against the back of his legs. He noticed he was in a pitch black room, though he made no effort to make it easier to see, be it through mage light or his night eye power that he had retained from his vampirism. He sat up; he could feel a headache developing, one of the side effects of A; pissing off Vaermina, giving him vivid and somewhat disturbing dreams and B; a problem that had plagued him ever since he had gotten rid of his Lycanthropy, a problem that took the form of insomnia and an artificial hangover like feeling whenever he awoke. No matter how used to this feeling he felt he got, it did not change the fact that he had a rather bad pain building up behind his eyes. He raised his hand and rubbed his temple, in an effort to dispel the pulsing ache that was building up, though he did notice something off about his hand. It seemed…harder somehow. He took a casual look at his appendage and saw the hoof there.

"BY TALOS!" The Thu'um in his words, shook the very foundations of the palace, throwing staff off of their hooves and, much to the dismay of the cleaners of the palace, shook the long forgotten dust from every rafter in the grand castle. The words he roared also caught the attention of the three mares in Celestia's bedroom, knocking them all off her rather sizable bed. Remus took many shuddering breaths in an attempt to calm himself but it was all in vein and resorted to blaring out curses left, right and centre in an effort to be rid himself of his anger.

"BY SHEOGORATH'S GREAT HAIRY BALLS AND SANGUINE'S RUINED DAMNED LIVER!" His Thum'um once more carried his words through the castle, electing laughs and confused and amused looks from those who walked its halls. Celestia, Luna and Twilight however, had no looks of amusement on their faces as they galloped to the newcomer's room. None of them dared enter as more of the weird curses rumbled the castle. "_Aal_ _henvo dinok dur rok wo drey daar!" _May brutal death curse he who did this. The three mares looked at each other in confusion; the last outburst was rage fuelled and was in a language not recognised by any of them. It further disheartened them and did nothing to encourage them entering the newcomer's room. "The sea will run red in their blood once my voice finds them" the Dragonborn growled. Remus was not one for cursing so much but he felt he was sort of entitled to it, given the situation. He made his anger known to those who would hear it in the draconic Paarthurnax had taught him during his time atop the throat of the world. He wasn't sure where this rage came from but he suspected that it was coming from the fact that he was now a gods damned horse and that he had taken quite the hit to the pride. Another wave of rage overcame him, this one much more violent than the last and he knew that some simple curses would not suffice to let loose his anger. Turning to the door took great effort; he was not used to this body but his warrior's instinct flowed through him, pumping him full of adrenalin and attuning his mind, if only temporarily, to his hew form. Spying his target, his filled his lungs with air.

_**Fus, Ro Dah**_

The blast of raw, unrelenting power that was the unrelenting force shout, powered through the door, blasting it off its hinges and slamming it into the wall opposite it. Outside the room Celestia, Luna and Twilight looked on in horror; the door, that was by no means light, had just been thrown off its supports by three words of immense power. The stallion that had been laying on the bed trotted out, looking like he was either drunk or had awful balance, and turned his head around, looking at the three of them. Remus looked over the horses that surrounded him; one was tall and white, one was short and purple, and the last was dark coloured and around his height. He paid them no mind, looking for someone, pony…whatever, that posed a challenge.

"Who are you" the purple one asked quickly. Remus looked at the, what he assumed to be a mare from the voice, that had spoken to him. The red mist had descended and he did not register that a pony had just spoke to him. He didn't even have time to respond as a group of gold clad horses rounded the corner at a gallop. The Dragonborn recognised them as guards and grinned; some blood would be spilled tonight. He let loose a deafening war cry, the kind of battle cry the nords were known for, his bellowing roar putting fear into the hearts of those around him and putting them out of the fight before they had even joined it. Celestia's eyes widened as she watched the stallion send a cry to the celling, reverberating a putting an unnatural fear in her. She used her magic to pull Twilight and Luna closer to her, putting a cowering Luna under her wing and holding Twilight in a mothers embrace, as she watched the snow white and ice stallion move towards her day guards with a strange sense of certainty in his step. And she knew why, she had felt his power for herself.

_**Fo, Krah Diin**_

A powerful wall of frost sped towards the guards and slammed into them, freezing them to the bone and nearly freezing them to death. A few of them fell to the ground, exhausted and weakened by the blizzard Thu'um. Out of the seven that had first advanced, only three now continued with the attack; two of them wore golden armour and one in gold and purple, this one stood out and spoke out 'higher rank' to the _Dovahkiin. _The two grunts that approached were now nervous, approaching Remus with more caution now, the higher ranking stallion acting much the same way. It suddenly struck the Dragonborn that he was fighting horses and he gave a small smirk.

"What's so funny" the purple clad stallion demanded. Remus didn't answer, instead he attacked.

Holding his left hoof out, an arc of lightning building in power as Remus pumped his large reserves of magicka in to his spell. The violent lightning sparked off of the concentration of magic in the Dragonborn's hoof shattering the tiles that lined the walls and floors as the mage lightning bounced off it, lashing out at other spots of wall and floor as it gathered power, the smell of ozone emitting from the snow and ice stallion. Thrusting his hoof forward the mage's thunder careered towards the three remaining guards, striking out at the tiles as it made its journey towards them. When it hit the stallions they were put down immediately, the lightning flowing over them and electing a bark of pain from one of them. The lightning spread between them in spider web like pattern that jumped from them and reached for the walls and floors as the powerful spell struck down two of the guards, the grunts, where the captain, as Remus presumed, blocked the spell with some kind of purple barrier or ward. The grunts fell to the floor, skidding a little as the momentum of the spell carried them, and didn't move unconscious but not dead. A small portion of Remus's mind didn't want to kill them with magic, he wanted the final blow to be up close and personal. The captain looked Remus dead in the eye an unspoken challenge in his gaze, he drew a sword from the air, a long, double edged blade with a purple shimmer around it, reminding Remus of a bound weapon. The Dragonborn cursed mentally, wishing for a weapon of his own, as the stallion advanced, he noticed that this pony seemed to be using magic to use his weapon and that the magic seemed to be flowing from the horn atop his head. When there was no more than fifteen feet between them, the armoured stallion stopped and spoke up.

"I'll give you one chance to back down" the guard captain called over. Remus grunted.

"True nords never back down" he growled. The two stallions charged each other, the guard slashed horizontal with his weapon, Remus ducked and countered; slamming his hoof into in to his opponent's chest, knocking him back and knocking the wind out of him. Shining Armour was taken aback by the pony's raw strength, more so that he had managed to throw him off balance despite his champion's battle stance. During his shock Remus took advantage of his distraction, pulling his head back and slamming it into the guard's face, causing blood to pump from his muzzle but he wasn't done there; a hoof in his temple, a chop to his neck and an uppercut to his chin, all delivered faster than anypony could properly register, sent the purple garbed stallion flying and the Dragonborn thanking Vilkas for those lessons in hand-to-hand. He looked down at himself, _hoof-to-hoof _he guessed. Shining lay on the ground, blood leaking from his snout and mouth, the magical blade dispelled. Remus was about to deliver the finishing blow, he was pretty sure that a snapped neck would do the job, but as he reached for the horse's chin and horn he felt a distinct magical presence behind him; he had begun to notice the strange tingling sensation in his head soon after he had obtained the staff of Magnus and he knew to trust his instinct when it came to this feeling. Turning around he saw he was wise to have done so; the white, tall horse that he had found outside the room he had slept in was charging what appeared to be a great ball of fire, almost like a sun, and was aimed right at him. He snarled, knowing he was not likely to survive a hit like that, and decided a vanishing act was called for.

_**Gol**_

The shout, the first word of 'bend will', erupted from his maw, striking not the mare that charged the attack but the ground before her; the tiles cracked and split, a small mountain emerging from the ground as the gold and orange shout made contact, separating the Dragonborn from the raging inferno that was threatening to turn him to ashes. Turning to the nearest window he let loose another shout.

_**Fus, Ro**_

The two worded Thu'um shattered the window with very little resistance, he looked out and saw a perils drop awaiting him. With a grunt he turned back as he heard a deep rumbling, the called for his attention; it seemed that the white mare had smashed through his barrier with the spell she had been charging and was now looking Remus dead in the eye.

"Princess at your front, a lethal drop at your back, what do you do?" The 'princess' had an air of sureness about her, one that did not phase Remus one bit.

"Neither of which would kill me, the only difference between the two options is that one" he nodded his head at Celestia "requires a fight, one that would be interesting but tedious and somewhat pointless. The other" he nodded back to the window, a grin forming on his face "would be all the more fun." Remus turned to the shattered glass and bounded towards it.

_**Feim, Zii Gron**_

The shout lashed through the air and the words cast the ancient magic that turned his body from that of a physical one, to an ethereal one, making him immune to and incapable of inflicting damage, namely the hundred foot drop that threatened his life before he had used this shout, one of the shouts that Paarthurnax had guided him in meditation atop the throat of the world; the whole process of thought and contemplation had taken him a month in total, the entire time he barely moved, rarely ate and rarer still slept, what he took from this was the understanding that a _Dovah's _soul, their spirit, is much more powerful and much more malleable than that of a _joor's, _a mortal's. What he took from this understand was that, even as a ghost one of the _Dov _still retained life-like qualities allowing them heal to themselves as a spirit. The main downside to this shout was that its user would still feel pain and Remus was going to feel the hundred foot drop and feel it good. As he threw himself from the window the Dragonborn knew what fate awaited him when he hit the ground; the pain of all his bones breaking at once.

The air whistled past his ears as he went, nothing but a flat look on his face served as his expression as he descended. Crashing to the ground he knew that he would have to make a hasty exit, though as a thief he had more than a little experience with this and as Dragonborn he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve. His deadpan face looked at his bare leg and hoof and he had to fight to stay calm and not tear this world apart. He looked around himself and realised he was in a city of some sort, he also noticed that he had just rolled down the side of a mountain when he had leapt from, he looked up, a rather magnificent palace. He heard shouts and the sounds of alarm coming from the streets and knew he would have a hard time getting out of here in this form. He grinned at the prospect of using a new shout.

_**Ven, Mul Riik **_

The fog, the thick and damning fog that had once served as a soul's snare in Sovngarde, quickly formed in the alleyways and streets of the town he was in, obstructing his presence from any guards that may see him and giving his escape a rather effective and thick cover. It did not go unnoticed, however, that right after the palace had been breached, thick and unexplainable smog gathered faster than any unicorn or Pegasus could form it.

"What's all this" a disembodied voice called from the slate grey mist.

"The buck should I know" another answered. Remus grunted.

'_Buck…must be their version of fuck. Huh, wonder what other words have been exchanged for horse related phrases…'_

The thought was fleeting as he made his way through the alleyways and side streets of the city, he found it surprisingly easy to stay quiet on his hooves, making carful but fast steps staying silent but not stopping, utilising skills he had honed since the first time he had sneaked past a bear. He found his way out of the town within about ten minutes, it was there he realised his problem; he had no idea where he was, even with his peerless sense of direction it was the simple fact that he had nothing go on, not a map, directions or anything. He looked around himself, his eyes settling on…well he didn't really know what they were; what appeared to be wooden boards with metal strips laying on top of them, he recognised them from some of the mines he had been but not to this scale before. With nothing else to go on he decided to follow them, wondering just what he had got himself into.

* * *

Celestia had been enraged by the escape stallion, the fact that he had escaped and the hateable sureness he had about himself, but it was quickly replaced by the presence that clung to her chest; Twilight Sparkle was still clinging to her, tears streaming down her face as the weird fear that came with the roar he had gave still holding its effecting her. The princess of the day sat against a wall, cradling the filly with a mother's love.

"It's alright, he's gone now" she soothed to no avail, instead Twilight just pulled in harder, a gesture that Celestia returned. Celestia picked up the purple mare, her little sister and Shining Armour, the latter two with her magic, intent to carry them to her quarters so they may rest. She left the clean-up to guards that had just arrived and just trotted, weary to her room. Laying her sister and captain of the guard on her bed, she looked at the mare she had taken in and tutored for most of her life. Twilight's eyes fluttered open and they took a look at each other for a single second before they embraced once again, in relief and affection. It was lost on neither of them that it was much like a mother and daughter's embrace.

"Do not worry Twilight, I'll be sure to deal with him." A spark of hate ignited in her chest as she felt the mare sob a few times. It was in that moment that she made a rather life changing decision for the both of them but she couldn't deny the way she felt for Twilight. "I'll deal with him personally." Her eyes narrowed at the thought of that stallion making her adoptive daughter cry.

* * *

**Second chapter of my second fic, yay. Sorry if I missed any mistakes by the way, after the third try at editing this, all prior attempts getting deleted and almost causing me to punch through the screen. Anywho, hope you enjoy and see you next chap.**

**Productive faffer out.**


	3. The survivor

Chapter three: The survivor

Canterlot, and indeed all of Equestria, was in total lockdown. Celestia had pulled out all the stops to find this stallion; all her royal guards, the solar guard, the night guard and the Crystal Empire's Crystal guards were all on high alert, under strict orders to report even the faintest of rumours of this stallion's location to their respective captains, all scouts were on the lookout for a white stallion with ice blue markings on his body and Celestia's own complex network of informants, spies and information brokers were all keeping their ears to the ground for word on this mystery stallion. It had been three day's and despite all the princesses' efforts, there was nothing; not a scrap of information, not a whisper of a rumour and not even the shadow of passing gossip in an idle conversation could be dug up. She'd even sent word to the griffons, who'd thankfully recognised the direness of the situation and promised to send word should they hear anything. She wasn't sure if she trusted them or not but at the moment she had more pressing things on her mind at the moment.

As Celestia sat in her throne, awaiting reports that weren't arriving and probably didn't exist, she had to admit it; this stallion brought more questions than answers with him, the latest of which was 'how in Tartarus, could somepony drop off the face of Equestria so completely?' There were others of course; the markings on his body for instance, they were completely unique in all respects, they belonged on no pony or zebra of any race, culture or breed; then there was the magic he used, lightning was a particularly difficult strand of offensive magic but it normally came out as a continuous arc, not the bolt he had produced, but then there was the way he used it, he had formed the bolt in his _hoof_, not his horn. It was, technically, impossible to conduct magic through the hoof as only Alicorn the material of which the unicorn horn, the bones of Pegasus wings and the bones of an Alicorn were made from, that being what gave them their unmatched magical power, could conduct magical energy and yet, he had used magic via his hoof like it was nothing, almost like he was used to it, which was impossible. Wasn't it? Then there was the other thing he had done; those strange words that hit her soul with the force of a wrecking-ball and shook her bones, to speak nothing of what they had actually done; he'd thrown the doors of the room off their hinges and those doors were nothing to scoff at, they were designed by some of the best artists in all Equestria and forged by the best smiths the land had to offer; their purpose was to keep the nobles salivating and any ponies Celestia didn't exactly trust under wraps, the walls of the room were all magically reinforced and the doors were more secure than any prison. At least, they were supposed to be. Then there were the other things he'd done; that blast of frost that had hit her guards, they described it as their core temperatures being lowered to minus one-fifty for a few seconds, completely draining them and nearly killing them; and that shout he'd used when Celestia tried to stop him, what was the word, _**Gol**_? Earth bending troubled the princesses of the day, it was a simple fact of magic that if you could control the core elements; earth, fire, water and wind, you were considered to be on the higher end of the 'powerful ponies' scale, and he'd done it with just a word? She shuddered at the thought of such power. She sat back in her throne, drained.

And then there was the OTHER thing he'd done.

'_Just how much can this stallion do, he seems to be as powerful as myself.'_

Celestia considered herself to be a powerful being; it came with the territory when you were the immortal ruler of a country, but the way he had crippled her, Twilight and Luna with nothing but a battle cry…It didn't seem natural. Or maybe that kind of ability was no simple magic, there were fear inducing spells in existence, yes, but none of them would work on an Alicorn or a unicorn of Twilight's calibre, due to their intelligence, but this stallion's… whatever he did, struck fear into her very core. There was something off about him though; he trotted about like a stallion who'd had a full keg of cider to himself but then he'd gone on to beat the stuffing out of Shining Armour, who wasn't the captain of the guard for nothing; the blue mane stallion was a certified master at hoof-to-hoof combat, yet the ice and snow stallion had fed him his teeth like it was nothing. Then there was the way he escaped; the guards had been quick to report the sudden smog that rolled in as he left, it was too conveniently timed to be a coincident, which could only mean he had conjured it himself. He could control the weather. But no unicorn could control the weather, not to the degree of the Pegasi anyway, that said, he was no normal unicorn. Celestia massaged her temples with her hoof, recent events notwithstanding, life about the palace had been general torture anyway; the nobles were getting on her back about her decisions in recent months: first it had been Discord; they didn't seem to like the ancient god of chaos roaming the palace pulling pranks on them or those types that thought they were something special; it was those she hated most, the ones who didn't treat Luna like a princess, who had insisted that she take Cadence as a nice rather than a daughter, what had they said; _it would cause a shift in the royal family that nopony is prepared for_. Celestia knew what was behind those honeyed words, they were all waiting for something to happen to cause Celestia to step down from the thrown and her having a daughter would make the process of one of them gaining power longer process. Snivelling tyrants, the lot of them. Well, most of them, Fancy Pants was the only noble she really trusted or even liked. With a sigh she pushed the thoughts from her head; she had enough to worry about as it is.

She slipped down her seat until she slouched un-regally in her throne; grateful nopony was around to see her in a moment of weakness. What she wouldn't do for a tankard of cider right now, something Twilight's friend Applejack brewed or maybe an Appaloosa mugging. At the end of the hall the doors flung open and in came the four ponies she wanted to see most; Shining Armour, captain of the royal guard, Princess Cadence, Alicorn princess of love, Princess Luna, Celestia's beloved little sister and Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's most prized student and newly declared daughter, although Celestia hadn't actually mentioned that detail to her yet. Watching the purple unicorn with a mother's loving eye, a single thought entered her mind.

'_Soon…'_

Celestia had her guard captain stay in Canterlot with his sister; he'd been here accessing the new recruits. Technically, he needn't do that anymore, what with him now being a prince now and all, but he claimed to enjoy breaking in new troops and his wife seemed to relish the prospect of a vacation from the Crystal Empire. Twilight was also staying due to her mentor's orders, she didn't want Twilight straying from her side with that stallion about and Luna, who had been under Celestia's wing ever since the stallion had used that…she still wasn't sure what it was, never letting her out of her sight for more than a minute. Celestia got out of her throne, meeting her friends halfway. She wrapped Twilight in a hug, bending down slightly.

"Good morning Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armour" she disengaged from the hug "Lu-Lu" she said with a grin at her little sister.

"Morning" they relied in unison, Luna cringing slightly at her sister's pet name for her. It was after this the atmosphere darkened noticeably. "Capitan Armour, anything to report?" The stallion looked down.

"Nothing Princess, I'm sorry but he seems to have dropped off the face of Equestria" he tells her, sounding ashamed. Celestia hummed her understanding, nodding a few times.

"Understood. After the way things have been going, I'm not all too surprised."

"Auntie" Cadence piped up, nuzzling Celestia "what Shining, told me…the way he just…" she wrapped her adoptive aunt in a tight hug. Celestia had always liked Cadence's hugs, that said; when you're the pony embodiment of love, you're bound to be a great hugger. "I can't believe he would just do that to you."

"We have to find him before he does anything else. He's a threat to security and I won't have anypony else hurt by this…newcomer" Celestia declares. Shining looked up at his boss.

"But we've already got all the day and night guards, the royal armies and even the Crystal guards combing all of Equestria, and we haven't found hide nor hair of him." He looked around the gathered ponies. "I don't think it'll be as easy as 'just finding' him." Everypony silently agreed with him.

"What does Discord have to say" Twilight asked, speaking up for the first time.

"He claims to know nothing about this stallion, even he appreciates just how…unpredictable the Stone cutter's passage can be. He tells us he will be on the lookout for this stallion" Luna answers.

"Isn't there anything we can do? Look for clues or something, I mean, nopony can just _disappear _like that, nopony, I don't care who, nopony just vanishes." Luna wanted so much to agree with Twilight, she had been feeling cooped up and useless in the palace doing nothing, but she wouldn't know where to start.

"What do want us to do Twily? We haven't a clue where he went or why he attacked us like he did. For all we know he's trotting the plains of Tartarus by now" Shining argues. Twilight looked at her hooves without answer.

"We must start somewhere, none of our resources have any information whatsoever, I say we take this into our own hooves" Celestia decides. Twilight brightened up.

"Should we send for the Elements of Harmony" Cadence asks her Aunt. She shook her head.

"No, not yet, and I want to avoid involving them in this if possible." They all looked taken aback at that.

"Why" Twilight exclaimed "wouldn't it be easier than just trying to take him on?"

"I understand where you're coming from Twilight, but this stallion; he assaulted my sister, my guard captain and yourself. He's made this personal." Twilight blinked, she had never seen Celestia like this before.

"Princess, no matter what we say or do, it doesn't change the fact that we have no clue where he is, or the full extent of his abilities. I know for a fact he hasn't shown all he can do, he may have fought me off with his hooves, but he flinched and looked annoyed when I pulled my sword. I get the feeling he knows how to use one."

"But that doesn't make sense; if he knows how to use a sword why would he need to be so skilled in magic" Twilight argues.

"And the way he escaped, he sneaked out of Canterlot like it was nothing and the fog that rolled in was too thick to be Pegasus controlled. I don't like the idea of somepony controlling the weather like that. How did he even do it" Luna adds.

"I think it was something to those…um, shouts I guess. I mean it stands to reason if he can 'shout' a door of its hinges, he may be able to change the weather at will" Twilight ventured. Shining rubbed his fore-head with his hoof, a smirk on his face.

"You're not making me feel any better about going up against this guy Twily."

"PRINCESS CELESTIA, PRINCESS! Err, Captain Armour, Miss Sparkle, Princess Luna and Cadence." The grey Pegasus day guard, Stone Wing, had burst through the door of the throne room, galloping up to the five of them.

"Yes" Celestia replied without missing a beat.

"I-I-I just outside, something big- It was!"

"Soldier, calm down. Breath, gather your thoughts and take your time" Celestia soothed. The Pegasus guard took a deep breath, swallowed and took another breath before continuing.

"I just saw, outside Ponyville, it was a…a."

"Do you have something to report about the newcomer" Celestia prompted, leaning forwards slightly. The guard flinch.

"See, that's the thing; nopony knows. We aren't sure whether this is connected to the runaway stallion or not." The princess nodded patiently.

"Just tell us what you saw; anything right now would be helpful."

"I saw" He swallows again "a dragon!" Twilight blinked.

"A DRAGON!" Her words shook the ponies around her.

"Y-yes Miss Sparkle but like none I've heard of before. It didn't…look right."

"How so" Luna asked, now curios.

"Well, as we know, dragons stand as bipeds, right?" They all nodded. "Well, from what I could see, this one had two legs, or claws really, and a pair of wings on his back. It looked more like a lizard than a dragon we know." The princess of the day nodded, holding her hoof to her chin.

"Hmm a Wyrm, I know these creatures. They are a significantly rarer breed of dragon; they take to the skies but don't eat gems, they were known for abducting and eating cows, some of them were known for killing ponies for entertainment. They weren't well liked, as you can imagine." She looks around the ponies surrounding her. Twilight looks up at her mentor.

"It's the same as the fog; the timing is too convenient to be a coincident. A dragon, a rare one at that, doesn't just show up at the same time as somepony like that and not be connected." Shining hummed in thought.

"Dragons aren't known for working with ponies, in fact, from what I know about Wyrms they'd rather bite you in half than help out."

"Shining" Cadence exclaimed before she collected herself. "Surely you don't think this is just a coincidence?" The guard captain frowned; he knew they had a point but it didn't feel right.

"Guard, where was this dragon headed? If he doesn't have anything to do with the newcomer, he might know something" Celestia said in way of planning their next move. She didn't like the way the guard flinched again.

"There's something else; when I saw the dragon, I took to the ground and asked around, trying to find anypony who might know anything. The only thing I got was from a local weathermare, Rainbowdash I think" Twilight smiled at the thought of her friend. "She said she saw something, or somepony, on the dragon's back. Forgive me for assuming captain, but if a dragon, possibly with a pony on its back, is a coincidence I don't know what isn't." The jaws of Shining, Cadence, Luna, Twilight and even Celestia hit the floor.

"Y-you mean, that stallion was…riding that dragon?" the guard swallowed again, more nervus than before.

"I'm saying it's possible, Twilight."

"When was he spotted" Celestia asked.

"About a day after he escaped Canterlot, I'm sorry, I got here as fast as I could but with all with all the commotion going on after everypony heard about what happened here I got held up a few times. I'm not sure if he's still there or not."

"This changes things" Celestia declared "if this dragon is an alley of the newcomer he could be anywhere in Equestria by now; it throws a whole new spin on things. Guard where was the dragon headed?" Stone Wing glanced at Twilight for a second.

"The Everfree forest." Twilight took a second to digest this information.

"Wait a minute, if he's heading to the Everfree forest from Canterlot then that means he'll fly right past-"Her eyes widened for a second before she galloped for the doors without finishing. Celestia watched as she went, confused as to her sudden outburst. Her eyes widened and put a hoof to her mouth in shock as it clicked.

"Ponyville!"

* * *

The clouds, the air and the sky. These three things, were all Remus-the featureless lived for now. His first time riding a dragon, Odahviing, had been heralded by true words.

"_Be warned _Dovahkiin, _for_ _when you have flow the skies of Keizaal as the dragons do, your envy of the dov, will only increase."_

How right he had been. After the events of Skuldafn and his first experience with flight, he'd spent a lot of his time dreaming of soaring in the clouds once more. Evers since he'd learnt the final word of the shout 'bend will' he'd been meaning to thank Hermaeus Mora for teaching him and returning the gift of flight to him. He relished the thought of flight now; he put it down to the _Dovasos, _dragon blood, in his veins that made him love the feeling of being so high in the air. One thing was for sure though; it was definitely better than trying to walk with this body.

He'd been running, galloping…whatever for about two hours before he'd gotten tired of falling flat on his face every five steps. His inability to move to any great degree was causing problems; after having the skills of a master assassin and thief, he'd gotten accustomed to the natural grace he'd been working on and mastered ever since the first time he'd sneaked past that bear and to have his skills taken along with his body was an insult. Before long he'd gotten frustrated and decided to spare himself any more humiliation, thus was the road he set on to calling Durnehviir and riding him through the skies of this place. Gods, that had been awkward, summoning the great dragon guardian of the soul cairn as a horse; the dragon had looked at him, blinked once and laughed until he got the message that Remus was apocalyptically angry with his reaction. After that Durnehviir had remained remarkably stoic about the whole situation, almost like he was completely unfazed by it; he probably could have fooled Remus into thinking he didn't care had he not been the subject of the Dragonborn's first experience of a laughing dragon. As he rode his undead dragon ally, he took time to examine his new…appendages; the 'hooves', he guessed, were fascinating by design; they looked like simple stumps but felt and acted like a claw of sorts, as if his fingers had been tied together. Of course there was the lack of thumbs, which would be hard to get used to, but he got the feeling that would grow to feel natural over time. Fine motor movements weren't hard to grasp; it was, thankfully, very similar to using his hands for his fore-hooves and his ankles and feet for his hind-hooves. Remus examined his hooves as he rotated his hoof, getting to know them.

"_Qahnaarin_, you seem troubled by something" Durnehviir pipes up. Remus looked over at the dragon that had turned his head back to the Dragonborn slightly.

"Wouldn't you, if you woke up to find yourself a horse?" The dragon grunts, shrugging his winged shoulders.

"I have lived a long time _Qahnaarin_, I do not know how I would react but I doubt it would be too dissimilar to yours."

"_Zu'u nid lingrah jul. _I'm no longer man, you would be no longer a _Dovah. _I get the feeling you would have torn the place apart _fahdon._" Once more, Durnehviir shrugs.

"_Kah los sahlo ol pogaas mulaag Dovhakiin_. Pride is weakness as much strength Dragonborn, you would do well to curb it, or suffer the same fate as Alduin, hmm." Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Since when were you a master of psychology?" Another shrug.

"When one is forced to roam a place as desolate as the soul cairn for all eternity, you find yourself with much _tiid wah mindok. _Time to think, _fahdon._" Remus couldn't argue with the dragon; he'd let his pride get the better of him when he'd awoke, tearing apart those who'd been outside his room hadn't been very…nice of him. He leaned back on Durnehviir's spines, sighing as he did. Now that he thought about it, those horses had likely given him a place to rest and treated him hospitably when they didn't even know him. His guilty thoughts were interrupted when Durnehviir loosed a roar to the heavens, signifying he'd spotted something on the ground. "_Fahdon! _I see a settlement below us, a village."

Looking past the dragon's head, Remus saw what he spoke of; a village…or town? It was by no means a city; most of the buildings were made from wood and had thatch roofing, but the scale of it didn't permit it to be called a 'village'. It also didn't have any defensive measures; not a wall, no watchtowers, he couldn't even see any guards. No threat.

"Leave it be, there is no worthy prey down there." The dragon nods, another roar and particularly powerful beat of his wings his respond as they flew over the village. Remus dared look over the side of his neck; even from this height he could see they masses of horses down there, looking up and pointing up at them, thanks to his enhanced senses. When he absorbed his first soul it seemed to awaken the hidden potential of his sight, hearing and scent; now he could see perfectly from great distances, hear foes from miles away and had a sense of smell that even the most adept of predators could only dream of. He looked up and his eyes caught sight a deep, foreboding, eerily quiet and downright evil forest. "Durn, head for that forest. It'll make a good place to hold up." The undead dragon looked towards what his rider had pointed out and took a dive, levelling out just above the treeline, gliding over the deep sea of forest green. The dragon spotted a clearing, large enough to house him and Remus. Beating his wings and dropping into the open area with a large 'thud', the Dragonborn dismounted.

Remus looked around himself; the clearing was on the path of a small stream, a thick wall of trees on all sides, the sun could get into it but was doing an awful job of actually lighting it.

"This will do" he decided. He trotted forwards, having trouble keeping his balance, before he found a patch of land he decided he liked.

'_First things first; set up camp.'_

_**Gol**_

A shot of earth shot up, shaped like the walls of a triangle, until Remus willed it to stop. A tent, a little rugged but it would keep the rain off of him. Turning around he eyed some stones at the edge of the stream, putting them in a small circle, he gathered some sticks putting them in the circle of stones before lighting them with a simple flame spell. When he'd done this, he heard heavy, clumsy movements from behind him. Turning he found Durnehviir resting on his front, the dragon version of relaxing. As Remus watched him settle, a thought entered his mind.

"Say, Durnehviir, shouldn't you have returned to the soul cairn by now?" The dragon turned his full attention to Remus.

"I have thought of this" he explains as Remus sets about setting up runes to defend the small campsite. "I believe that with the differences between this land and _Taazokaan_, Tamriel, my stay will be more permanent than most others." With this revelation, Remus miss-cast his ice rune, causing it to explode in his face.

"What" he demanded, pulling a shard of ice from his face nonchalantly.

"Tell me, _Dovahkiin; _you are a fellow _Nahgahdinok, _necromancer, are you not?" Remus nods, his preferred schools of magic were destruction, restoration and alteration but he knew plenty about illusion and conjuration. "_Pruzah, _then do you know the difference between a summoning and a conjuration?" Remus was unsure what he was getting at, but nodded all the same.

"Aye I do, a summon is the act of magically opening a door; the summoned being passes through the door of their own will, normally going through because of their loyalty to the summoner or their own curiosity as to why they have been summoned. The creature, upon crossing the portal, is then sustained by their own set of rules. You for example have a timer, Arvak until he is no longer needed and Lucien Lachance returns to the void when he 'dies'. The main thing that they all have in common is that they have the option not to pass through and have a continued awareness of their existence, summoned or not. A conjuration on the other hand, err hoof is the act of calling forth an Atronach or Daedra from Oblivion called forth with no option about it whatsoever, they have no awareness of themselves until they are conjured, that being what gives them no choice. The conjured creature is they fuelled by the magic that brought them to the necromancer, usually lasting for about a minute or so. Why do you ask Durnehviir, what are you getting at?"

"The key to my explanation, are the rules you speak of; they only seem to take effect in Tamriel. Perhaps there are still rules in effect, only different from the ones we know. _Nii los_ _Vomindok wah dii. _It is unknown to me." Remus nodded, settling down under his makeshift tent. Night was falling fast, and the silver light of night was quickly setting in.

"Interesting…what do you think would have changed with Lucien and Arvak?" The dragon shrugged.

"Again, I do not know. The reactions of the _key_ and _krivaan _may be similar to my own or hold many differences." Remus looked at his hoof as a thought came over him; concentrating on a spot between him and Durnehviir he called on a spell only he knew, picturing what he wanted to happen and who he wanted to appear, there was a great whooshing of wind and the sound of an Oblivion portal opening as Lucien Lachance stepped through. He was clad in the black robes of the Black Hand of old, an array of steel weaponry at his ghostly hip. Lucien's expression was that of confusion before he realised just what had happened.

"My listener" he asked the darkness around him, likely assuming his summoner was hidden in the shadows. He spoke in an incredibly smooth and deep voice that sent chills down Remus's spine whenever he spoke for the first time in a meeting. Turning his head, he spotted the dragon resting nearby. "Ahh, Durnehviir" he greeted with a polite bow. If there was one thing Remus admired about the long dead assassin, it was his impeccable manners. The two had met on one occasion when the Dragonborn was in need of a distraction of peculiar tastes. "I trust Remus is here somewhere?" The dragon nodded in the direction of the camp.

"Over here" the Dragonborn called out. Lucien was quick to spot the snow white and ice blue stallion in the stone tent. With a frown he strode over to him.

"Whatever happened to you" he asked with a small chuckle, quickly ridding himself of the disrespectful laugh. He sat down next to him, cross legged, and looked over Remus. "You have changed some my listener" he pointed out.

"You don't say" he deadpanned in response.

"What happened?"

"You tell me. One minute I was in the college of Winterhold, having just examined a portal of sorts, the next I wake up like…this. A horse of all things." Lucien leaned back against the stone tent.

"Forgive me listener, but you may be wrong in that respect." Remus raised an eyebrow. "You are no horse, but a…"

"Spit it out Lachance, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine with a little more bad news." A small grin worked its way across Lucien's face.

"You, my listener, are no horse but a pony." As the word left the assassin's mouth, he could see Remus's expression become more and more murderous.

"Great" he said, in a remarkably calm voice. "I'm in a land of GODS DAMNED PONIES." His cry was punctuated by the _thu'um _in his voice, the seer power and rage behind the shout sending a crash of thunder through the sky.

"Be calm listener, else you bring forth the wraith of the dread father himself." His words were met by death ears; Remus had buried his face in the ground, rocking it from side to side muttering some foul curses.

"Ponies…Ponies…Ponies…why…did…it…have…to be… ponies?" His words were followed by him smacking his head on the floor in frustration. "Are you sure?" Lucien shrugged his see-through shoulders.

"Your build and size would suggest so, and your mane and tail have been styled, which supports my claim. I may be wrong but that is what my instincts tell me" the assassin admitted. Remus breathed hard through his nose, or muzzle he guessed.

"Damn it" he muttered. "Either way, I'm pretty sure I've got bigger problems than my current form."

"What do you mean, listener?"

"I'm pretty sure I've just spat I the faces of this place's monarch." Lucien laughed his deep, creepy laugh that suited his sprit form.

"There's the listener I know" he joked.

"Yes, well. Either way I've been on the run for the whole of the day. I need rest." Lucien nodded his understanding, taking it as his cue to shut up, Durnehviir followed suit soon after. Resting his eyes on the unfamiliar night skies and their stars, he felt himself drift to sleep and Vaermina's clutches in strange and alien world, wondering just what fate had charged him with.

**A/N: So this was really a filler chapter, lots of talking, dragon riding and other stuff that has no real consequence. But hey, Lucien, that's a thing, right? Either way, next chap. things will happen but until then,**

**Productive faffer out.**


	4. Back home

Chapter four: Back home

Miraak, Teldryn Sero and the Ebony Warrior all marched forwards with snarls on their faces a Daedra would cower under.

After Remus's passing, life in Skyrim had taken a turn for the worst; the Thalmor had taken quick note of his death and had made their move, it seemed that he had been their only obstacle when he was alive, but now dead, the high elves had seen it as their chance. The first Dragonborn had held his ground and managed to stand as a sort of symbol for the Stormcloaks that stood up to them, acting as a figurehead to their cause, though it was clear that even with Miraak on their side, it wasn't enough, even Silas, Serana and Teldryn weren't enough to stand up to the forces the Aldmeri Dominion had sent their way. Apparently, it had all hinged on the scare factor Remus had provided; it seems the elves weren't willing to go up against the last Dragonborn when he was at full strength, or when he had his circle of friends and allies around him, not to mention the forces he had at his disposal; a large faction of the Stormcloaks stood under the Stormblade's banner, and were willing to fight and die for him; the Dark brotherhood had been growing rapidly and a force of at least a hundred assassins were under his banner also; the thieves' guild, though they hadn't expanded greatly in man-power, had expanded in influence massively. But it wasn't just that, it was the fact that he had brought together the most powerful guilds of Skyrim; having the Companions, Dark brotherhood, thieves' guild and Collage of Winterhold working in tandem towards a common goal, thus giving him not only a massive amount of influence, but a rather respectable army at his command. Without him however, they had fallen apart, no longer capable, or willing, to work together.

Without his strong leadership, the guilds themselves had fallen apart as well, and with the Thalmor bitter at the Dragonborn and Oblivion-bent on eradicating his memory and influence, few managed to last much longer. The Dark brotherhood had made Nazir their leader but was, once again, without a listener and quickly declined before falling victim to the Thalmor who, under the guise of eradicating the band of assassins, had invaded their home and torn them apart, with the help of a single agent who had managed to slip through the cracks. Not even Cicero and the Night mother survived. The thieves' guild came next, a massive raid on Riften had burnt down both the, mostly, innocent town and ripped apart the guild, turning the Cistern into a bloodbath, with only their Nightingale leaders making it out alive. The Companions were forced to disband, and those who had retained their beast blood were hunted down. Not even Farkas could hold off the full brunt of the Thalmor. Lastly, the Collage of Winterhold were kept under close scrutiny, Thalmor battlemages were stationed around the grounds, keeping a close eye on things and waiting to see if the strange arc that had appeared would return, while all of the teachers were replaced with Thalmor mages that only taught what they wanted. Solstheim's ebony mines had been quickly raided, and the Thalmor had taken every chunk of the black ore for themselves, once again making the island a dead settlement; they'd even gone so far as to take the seat of political power for themselves in case any more turned up. The Dawnguard were left mostly alone, the band of vampire hunters seemed to be able to hold their ground and stand up for themselves when they came to take stock of their resources and operation, while the reminder of the Volkihar clan were burnt alive, the castle being kept by the Thalmor as a trophy and new base of operations.

It was not, however, the Thalmor that these three warriors were after. No, instead they sort after a man who had made a personal move against them, an atrocity they would not let go unpunished. It had been three years since Remus's death, and but a week ago the Dawnguard had done something they wouldn't dared have done when he was alive; they'd burnt down his home and killed Serana. And it went further than that, they had taken all his collected weapons, armour and worldly possessions, including the armour he'd died in. They'd even killed his three dogs; the husky Bran, the wolfhound Vigilance and death-hound CuSith. But perhaps their greatest crime was the reason for Miraak's being here, the reason for his great shuddering breaths that rumbled through the air; they'd killed Sofie. When they'd burnt down the house they hadn't taken into consideration that there may have been a child in there, screaming, afraid, alone and the adoptive daughter of the most powerful being in Tamriel.

They marched through Dayspring canyon with vengeance in their hearts, before coming across a trio of vampire hunters; the Dawnguard had been expanding as of late, more numbers adding to their ranks and reinforcing their fortress. These three were nothing but grunts, foot-soldiers, and were quickly dispatched by a volley of lightning, curtsy of Miraak. They continued their walk, soon coming across the wooden gate that was fort Dawnguard's first means of defence; another pair of hunters were stood on the wooden battlements, looking over at them from their conversation and quickly standing up, weapons in hand. A Redguard with a bushy beard leaned over the wall slightly as he called over to them.

"Halt, who goes-" He didn't get any further, he was instead cut off by a shadow black arrow piercing his throat. He gagged and choked on his blood for a second before he died, his Khajiit companion biting it soon after when he found his face burned off by Teldryn's fire ball, getting thrown a few feet by the force of the blast. Silas continued to the door, kicking the door and bar off their hinges with one mighty kick. Four more hunters stood between them and the fort. The first Dragonborn whipped his hand to the side, tentacles forming his blade as he approached; he whipped the weapon's tentacle around the ankle of a Wood-elf, pulling him off his feet and yanking him over to Miraak when he found a blade stabbed through his neck. Silas took the next one, slashing the gut of a Breton and introducing entrails to weapon, his sword of ebony easily cutting through the leather of the Dawnguard's armour, the enchantment on it ripping his remaining life force away and transferring it to the Ebony warrior. The last two were taken by Teldryn, one meeting his end at the hands at an elven blade that removed his head from his body and the other met a nasty fate when his skin was burned off by a raging torrent of fire that spanned from the Dunmer's hand, who didn't stop until long after the hunter's screams had stopped. The villagers who had been holding out outside the fort had seen these three men, all their faces covered in helmets of masks, murder four of their hosts and promptly ran for the fort, shouting their alarm. More arrived.

Silas thrust his palm, a spear of ice finding its way into a hunter's chest; another few joined the fray, Miraak shouting them back and into a wall, breaking their spines; Teldryn blocked the swing of an axe and head-butted him in reply, before he pulled his dagger and thrust it between his opponent's ribs, going on to whipping it out and slashing another's throat with it; Miraak used the tendril of his sword to pull a hunter off his feet, then he marched up and curb-stomped him; five hunters rushed Silas and Teldryn at once, the Dunmer tossing his dagger into the head of one and Silas winding his arm back and throwing his sword into another, before they both moved in, Teldryn slashing and stabbing, throwing fire now and then, while Silas had drawn his daggers and took to expertly cutting tendons, slashing necks and getting to all the little vulnerable nooks and crannies that had their vital fluids squirting all over; three charged Miraak, who responded by cutting one down and clubbing one over the head with his staff before he bent gracefully forward under a hammer swing, spinning his staff, letting his grip slid to the end before he gave the other an almighty swing, beating the last one over the head; the last to stand was a small Nordic boy, an axe in his grip and fire in his eyes. Miraak loosed a shout, whirlwind sprint, and appeared beside him before running him through with his wide blade, not giving him a chance.

Miraak turned to the villagers, all of which were watching with wide eyes and fear. The dragon priest of knowledge and guidance approached, eyes narrowed behind his mask. He gathered lightening in his hand, letting it spark and dance around before he thrust it forward and hit a spot between them all, a small explosion going off around them as they screamed, scattering like rabbits. Teldryn sparked a flame in his glove before he threw it over the tents, watching it light them up and burn down while Silas retrieved his blade.

In response, five hunters entered the fray, bolts whipping past the warrior's heads as they approached, unfazed by their enemy's assault, the warriors made their way up to the entrance to fort Dawnguard. A hunter whiling a war-hammer charged Silas; the Ebony warrior took the hammer's swing on his shield, the attack vibrating over his arm, before he gracefully side-stepped and sliced the back of his opponent's leg open, going on to ramming the weapon through his throat. Another hunter, this one a Khajiit with two axes, leapt over the wooden railing, aiming to land on Teldryn; the Dunmer just raised his weapon and let him land on it. The last three to stand were backing up as Miraak, Teldryn and Silas advanced; one dropped his crossbow and drew his war-axe and charged, being cut off when Silas threw his shield at him like a discus, hitting him in the throat and quickly choking to death. The other two died when Miraak had moved swiftly up to them, stabbing one in the gut and cramming his staff down the neck of the other, filling him with poisonous tentacles until he, literally, burst. They pushed on into the fort.

"These _ah, _hunters, are weak, pathetic" Miraak growls as he cuts the head off of one who tries to jump him.

"They're used to fighting vamps, not actually fighters" Teldryn replies, throwing a fire bolt at an Orc hunter. The three of them march into the central chamber, looking around themselves as they searched for their target; _Isran. _They continued for a while until they found a small group of hunters, the inner circle of the Dawnguard. They posed no challenge, Miraak burning them alive with a single shout.

_**Yol, Tor Shul**_

None of them could react to it, be it raise a ward or shield, none of them survived it either, who could survive a dragon's strongest offensive shout. Miraak kept the flow of flame going until nothing more than ashes remained. They paused for a second when they heard something; the sound of applause, a slow, mocking clap that came from behind them all. They turned on the spot to find the man they were here for, Isran, and they all tightened their grip on their weapons.

"There you are" Miraak rumbled. He started forwards and the vampire hunter did nothing but stop clapping.

"What's the matter? Still angry at the death of that filthy blood-sucker?" Miraak continued his advance, when it became clear he wasn't going to stop, Isran pulled his hammer from its sheath and settled into a battle stance. Miraak swung his sword, breaking through the old Redguard's weak defence and pushing him back.

_**Fus, Ro**_

Isran was blown back into the circular hall that was the entrance hall to greet anyone who would enter fort Dawnguard and landed on his ass, rolling over his head and onto his feet again, wobbling slightly. He silently cursed; in his prime he'd have come out of that as graceful as a dancer but now that he was getting on in years he was having trouble fighting. His cunning, ability to strategize, how to move in his heavy armour and knowledge of how to run a band of hunters had remained true to form, but his body had not.

'_I hate getting old.'_

The Redguard picked up his hammer, holding it in one hand as he cast his spell in the other; Stendar's aura exploded around him, surrounding him in a golden glow and bolstering his efforts in battle. It wouldn't help him against the Dragonborn but it was always a reassuring presence.

_**Mul, Qah Diiv**_

The old vampire hunter looked up to see Miraak, bound in a set of golden, ethereal armour up his arms, chest and head. He strode forwards with menace in his step as he approached. The first Dragonborn stood over the hunter, before reaching down and hauling him up before throwing him away slightly. They stood in the small arena as foes, before Miraak spoke.

"I may be enraged by my brother's lover's death, but that anger is _nothing _when compared to my anger at the loss of my daughter" he growled as he lunged forward bringing his blade down, Isran blocking it on the shaft, turning and going to hit his enemy in the ribs. Miraak tensed and took the strike on his ethereal armour, and the thin dragon-scale mail beneath his robes; he grunted slightly, wrapping his arm over the weapon and locking it into position. Isran let go of the weapon, backing up and reaching to his back, drawing a pair of steel daggers. Miraak grunted.

_**Zun, Hall Viik**_

The weapons were ripped away from the Redguard, both pieces of sharpened steel embedding themselves into the wall, his arms being thrown aside with them; he stumbled back, his spell breaking and falling to one knee. He panted a few times as he looked up at the towering form of Miraak, standing over him, sword in grip. Silas and Teldryn walked up beside him, looking down at him with emotionless expressions on their masks, but they were glaring down at him behind their helmets.

"End it" Isran ordered. They said nothing; Silas kicked him in the face, onto his back, and straddled him, and started raining down fists, punching his face all over; nose, jaw, eyes, mouth and cheeks were all victim to his gauntlet clad fists. He went on for half a minute, until Isran's face was little more than a beaten, messy pulp and stood up, when Teldryn walked up; he snapped his fingers and a spark flew, and he caught it in his hand, letting it grown into a flame. He trust his palm and let the flame consume Isran, who did his damndest to not writhe and roar in pain but failed anyway. Teldryn kept it up until the hunter had been reduced to a charred mess on the floor, blood leaking from a few spots. Miraak took his turn; he stabbed his blade through Isran's gut, pinning him and bent down to him; he stared down into Isran's eyes, he put his hand to the hunter's throat and said a few final words.

"This, is for my daughter." He channelled magicka down his arm and into his palm, letting the lightning build up and spread into Isran's system. He increased the power suddenly and the old Redguard's neck couldn't take it, quickly exploding in a gory mess of bone, grey matter and blood that splattered around the room. Flicking a speck of brain off his robes, he stood up, turning to his fellows.

"That's that then" Silas observed, sheathing his sword and putting his shield on his back, over his bow and arrows.

"I guess it is" Teldryn agreed, as he sheathed his own blade and made for the door. He turned when he noticed Miraak wasn't following. "Something the matter" he drawled. The first said nothing, instead he just kept looking down at Isran's decimated corpse.

"We've nothing left; the manor is gone, we're the only ones left of our family, the Thalmor have taken over everything. We have nothing here" he looked up at them both "and there's nothing we can do about it." He looked back at the body, suddenly kicking it in his rage. "Not even a Dragonborn can stand against these damn elves" he cursed. He raised his foot and slammed it down on the burnt chest, blood spurting from the headless neck. Teldryn sighed, sliding down a wall as he removed his helmet, running his hand down his face. He knew it was true. Skyrim was in ruin, Solstheim was crippled and there was nowhere to go; they were wanted men, known associates of Remus, and had only just managed to get here undetected and it would only be a matter of time before the Thalmor walked on the fort; there was no doubt that they had an agent here, now likely dead, and would learn of the vampire hunter's demise.

"Remus would know what to do" Silas muttered, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, chin resting on his chest. Miraak huffed; he was a good planner, a thinker and a strategist, he could manipulate and think his way out of Apocrypha so he had always thought anything was possible for him, but, much to his utter enragement, the Thalmor were always one step ahead. Remus had a way with thinking about things that could get him and anyone with him out of any situation; be it with sheer brute force, unbelievable luck or some kind of near impossible scheme that failed miserably but somehow worked out anyway. That wasn't the kind of thing any of them could do; Teldryn had an unmatched cunning but couldn't form any kind of real plan, he adapted rather than gave any kind of premeditated thought; Miraak was never one to leave anything to chance, when it came to plans he had to be convinced to just 'wing it' and roll with the punches rather than already know what they were; and Silas didn't plan much at all, he was a fighter not a thinker.

"Remus isn't here" Miraak said bleakly. The temperature seemed to drop, dramatically, when he said this, the honest truth. All three sighed quietly, Teldryn running a hand over his face again, a habit he'd picked up soon after Serana's death that told anyone nearby that he was thinking bad thoughts. Silas removed his helmet, sliding down the wall in much the same way Teldryn had, sitting crossed legs holding his head in his hands.

"Then what do we do" the Redguard asked. Miraak shrugged and moved for the door, the other two looking over at him as he went.

"We wait it out" he said simply "there's nothing more we can do." He sighed slightly as he went to the door, looking through the still open entrance. He didn't like flying blind, but without the combined resources of the guilds that's what he was doing so that's what he did. Out of all of his problems though, he still missed his brother. Stepping outside, he looked to the sky, Silas and Teldryn behind him, and wondered, not for the first time, where in Oblivion his brother was.

**A/N: Yes, before you start, I know I said things would happen, and they have, just not in Equestria. And that this is a shorter chapter than most but, not to go looking for excuses, I seem to be suffering from wide scale writers block. But anyway, I HOPE to have a more eventful chapter next time, whenever that might be. So anyway**

**Productive faffer out.**


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